New Uke Day - I've joined the bari revolution!

mattydee

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Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to introduce this Mainland red cedar baritone to the fold. It's a second, but the ding on the bottom back is so minuscule that I nearly missed it the first time I looked it over. Solid red cedar top, solid rosewood back and sides.

BariFront.jpg

It's my first bari. I learned on a soprano, and graduated myself to concert at the beginning of last year, which is definitely more comfortable to play. When I tried a tenor, I felt it was too much of a compromise in sound, and I had gotten so used to concert and soprano scale that it just felt weird to me. So I was scared of the baritone, until the 2012 year of the baritone thread that either Mike at Mainland or Mike at Uke Republic started, and it got me to thinking about a deeper, mellower, fuller sound, and then Eugene Ukulele got two (!), and raved, and so then, I was on a mission.

I knew I'd have to "trade in" so I sold my Mainland red cedar soprano, which was definitely my most beautiful uke, and thought I'd just get its bigger cousin, and man am I glad I did. So, so pretty, and an amazing resonant tone with sustain for days. The sound is substantially different from the soprano/concert scale that it almost feels like a different instrument, but all the chord shapes fit, (if in a different key), and while I don't play guitar, I have noodled around, and this sound is different from that too.

Viva la baritone revolución!

BariHeadstock.jpg
Bariside.jpg
BariSoundboard.jpg
 
Hi ya Matty wow that is one beautiful Bari, cant wait to hear it , it certainly looks stunning :) i only got my first solid soprano in dec and only got my bari a couple of weeks ago and i cant put it down, i love the sound it is lovely and it is nice to have the choice of soprano or bari.
I also have a tenor and a kala pocket uke, but i serioulsy think i love soprano's and bari's now, they are the 2 sizes i thunk i will concentrate on, it is amazing how the bari is taking off on here, its good to know that the bari is growing in numbers, definately think we should have a bari week in the seasons :)
 
Welcome to the dark (baritone) side! Your new bari looks great and I'm glad you like the baritone sound. Happy strumming!
 
Sweet! Need a video!

It's a second, but the ding on the bottom back is so minuscule that I nearly missed it the first time I looked it over

Dangit! I should've thought to ask Mike if he had any seconds before I ordered my mahogany bari yesterday. I just ordered via the shopping cart and didn't even think about a second. I'm not a bling guy and the seconds I've seen from Mike are stuff I probably wouldn't even notice, much less care about!

Ahh well, water under the bridge, it's only money, and all that.

John
 
Congratulations Matty. It is a beaut. I am so jealous I have to wait two more days before your /my mainland soprano gets to me. Can't wait to hear your Baritone, and come to think of it my soprano too.
 
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Wow that is awesome looking might have to make an order.
 
The gold tuners with black knobs really goes nice with that rosewood headstock. I ordered the silver tuners with MOP knobs on my mahogany but I have gold tuners with amber knobs on the mango tenor.

Of course, at the end of the day, what really does it for me is sound and playability - the tuners could be rust and some other color and it would work for me if the uke sounded good and played nicely!

John
 
Wow, it's way beautiful. Congratultions!
 
Congratulations Matty. It is a beaut. I am so jealous I have to wait two more days before your /my mainland soprano gets to me. Can't wait to hear your Baritone, and come to think of it my soprano too.

Good things come to those who wait. ;)
 
The gold tuners with black knobs really goes nice with that rosewood headstock. I ordered the silver tuners with MOP knobs on my mahogany but I have gold tuners with amber knobs on the mango tenor.

Of course, at the end of the day, what really does it for me is sound and playability - the tuners could be rust and some other color and it would work for me if the uke sounded good and played nicely!

John

I had gold friction pegs with amber buttons on my cedar soprano, which was gorgeous. since this was a second, I didn't have a choice, it just came with the gold/black combo, but it works for me. I have a mainland banjo uke that has silver with amber geared tuners that i'm thinking about converting to friction -- maybe those will make it over to the bari.

right now, i'm so enamored of the sound that i don't really care about the tuners, though.
 
Dangit! I should've thought to ask Mike if he had any seconds before I ordered my mahogany bari yesterday. I just ordered via the shopping cart and didn't even think about a second. I'm not a bling guy and the seconds I've seen from Mike are stuff I probably wouldn't even notice, much less care about!

Ahh well, water under the bridge, it's only money, and all that.

John

Heh, heh. Either Mike stumbled across this post or he just knows me too well - I got an email from him this afternoon saying he had a bari with a nice voice but a small issue with the finish and would I be interested in it at a discount... Hey...does a bear... LOL

Try and get service like that from Amazon.com or Guitar Center! :)

John
 
Have you done a sound sample or will you? I have a Mainland tenor, and I strung it with all kinds of strings until I got some Southcoasts. The sound is VERY sweet. Mainland makes very beautiful ukes, I think they are incredible for the money. I'd be interested to hear how a baritone sounds.

As a kid, I started on a soprano until my dad gifted me with me a bari because my dad being my dad "bigger" was always better. But I loved it. (He also grew zucchini in the garden until they were baseball bat sized because "bigger is better" and we had to choke them down at dinner. Uff.)
 
Have you done a sound sample or will you? I have a Mainland tenor, and I strung it with all kinds of strings until I got some Southcoasts. The sound is VERY sweet. Mainland makes very beautiful ukes, I think they are incredible for the money. I'd be interested to hear how a baritone sounds.

As a kid, I started on a soprano until my dad gifted me with me a bari because my dad being my dad "bigger" was always better. But I loved it. (He also grew zucchini in the garden until they were baseball bat sized because "bigger is better" and we had to choke them down at dinner. Uff.)

Here's a sample. I learned on a soprano, and have been playing soprano and concert for a year and a half, so the scale of the bari is taking some getting used to, but it sure is fun to try new things.

 
Heh, heh. Either Mike stumbled across this post or he just knows me too well - I got an email from him this afternoon saying he had a bari with a nice voice but a small issue with the finish and would I be interested in it at a discount... Hey...does a bear... LOL

Try and get service like that from Amazon.com or Guitar Center! :)

John

Nice! That is indeed excellent service!
 
I'm liking this and the Kala ASAC Baritone model. Does anyone play their baritone standard high g GCEA? If so does it sound just like a tenor only lower? Do songs sound just fine?

AB
 
I'm liking this and the Kala ASAC Baritone model. Does anyone play their baritone standard high g GCEA? If so does it sound just like a tenor only lower? Do songs sound just fine?

AB

In one of the recent baritone threads someone mentioned in passing that they'd tried that and reported it basically didn't sound a lot different from their tenors. Nothing wrong with that if you're just looking for a tenor sound with more space on the fretboard, I s'pose.

John
 
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